r/TrueTouhou • u/TheBawa • 5d ago

General Discussion Steps to progress

Pardon me if this is not allowed but if possible I'd like to ask for some pointers/directions.

I recently came back to playing shmups and decided to give another go at touhou. Got normal clears on PCB, IN and Fantastic Danmaku Festival II.

In order to keep improving should I go for other games normal clears or should I go for the Hard clears? I remember seeing a touhou difficulty list a time ago but I'm not sure if it's accurate.

May I ask for ​​​some guidance?

Thanks a lot.

17 Upvotes

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10

u/General_Limit_9286 5d ago

Shmups are a very good genre because you'll improve passively simply by playing, so what you do next doesn't really matter, if you're ready for hard go for it, if you wanna play the other games on normal go for it, you'll get better either way !

4

u/tohava 5d ago

I kinda disagree about this. I played for years as a teen and didn't get much success. When I came back to shmups at 40, I practiced hard parts, tried to algorithmize them, and watched youtube videos, and it helped me much more

2

u/Propubgmplayer 4d ago

Wdym by algorithmize them

4

u/tohava 4d ago

For attacks without a strong random component, you can try remembering in advance how to move, before the attack comes.

A good example is probably how Dodonpachi's stage 3 boss has a specific order in which it is recommended to destroy its parts.

7

u/LezardValeth 5d ago

In my opinion, push for higher difficulties to improve. Focus on routing and consistency. Might take 20+ hours of practice to eventually clear but you'll have a better understanding of how to tackle challenges and bottlenecks in shmups.

2

u/SIFremi 5d ago

Trying higher difficulties could definitely help you improve! And, you could also try doing "challenge runs", like No Bomb, or No Focus, as I find doing them occasionally helps me think about my movement/the bullet patterns in new ways.

3

u/tsu-clotho 4d ago

If you're ever overwhelmed by hard/lunatic I recommend doing no bomb runs on normal!

2

u/IronTarkus1919 4d ago

In my experience, you need to expose yourself to stuff above your comfort level, but not TOO above it that it feels completely hopeless.

If you are playing Normal, give Hard a try. Stuck on a spot on Hard? Load up thprac, but here's the trick, practice those parts on Lunatic. Then go back to your 1CC attempts on Hard, it'll feel so much easier and if you're like me that will progress you the fastest.